Root Validator Baskets are the mechanism Root Reborn introduced for handling root dividends. They are live on mainnet (subtensor spec_version 441).

For the full tiered treatment — per-participant impact, mechanics, and open questions — see the Root Reborn explainer and its TL;DR. This page is the short canonical reference.

Before Root Reborn, root dividends were auto-sold from alpha to TAO and compounded onto your root stake automatically. Root stakers chose how to receive rewards through "keep vs. swap" claim options. Both of those are gone. There is no auto-claim, no "keep as alpha" path, and no keep/swap toggle.

Now, each root validator curates a basket: root dividends are re-bought into a set of subnets the validator chooses, and held as compounding subnet-alpha exposure until you redeem to TAO.

The basket vector

Each root validator publishes a weight vector w across the network's subnets — for example "buy 20% into subnet 1, 15% into subnet 5, 10% into subnet 28…". Subnets the validator doesn't list get weight zero.

• Validators set w with a dedicated extrinsic, set_root_weights. (The generic set_weights rejects netuid 0.)
• The vector is the validator's product. Stakers pick a validator on its basket performance, not just its take rate.
• A validator that sets no vector buys nothing — its stakers earn no root reward that cycle. There is no default basket by design.

How rewards accrue

Each cycle, for every root validator with stake and a non-zero vector:

1. The origin subnet's root dividend is auto-sold to TAO — same as before Root Reborn. The sell side on any subnet is unchanged.
2. That TAO is immediately re-bought across the weighted subnets per w.
3. The bought alpha is staked under a global escrow coldkey with the validator as hotkey, joining the validator's single basket fund.
4. Your deposit mints fund shares at the pre-deposit net asset value (NAV). Your slice of the basket is tracked as a share balance.

The basket compounds three ways: fresh alpha buys each cycle, alpha emissions on the basket's positions, and price movement on the alpha held. The round-trip creates and destroys no TAO — it is TotalStake-neutral.

Redeeming: claim_root

Your balance no longer rises on its own. To realise rewards you make a single manual claim_root call:

• It takes no arguments. It sweeps every validator you currently have root stake with at once — you can't cherry-pick one basket or one subnet.
• Your shares are valued at the fund's current NAV and redeemed pro-rata across all holdings, swapped to TAO, and staked back onto root.
• Redemption is always to TAO. There is no "keep as subnet alpha" option; if you want subnet alpha on your coldkey, claim to root, unstake, then stake into the subnet yourself.
• A validator you've fully exited (zero stake) is skipped — its basket stays parked until you re-stake, not swept.

Costs and considerations

• Claiming costs a fee that scales with how many subnets the validator's basket holds. The chain reserves up to ~0.115 TAO up front — the worst-case envelope for a basket at the 256-holding cap — and you must have that much free to submit the claim. It then refunds down to your basket's actual width, so what you permanently pay tracks how many subnets the basket really touches, not the ceiling:

  Basket holdings	Fee actually paid
  8	~0.0036 TAO
  128	~0.057 TAO
  256 (cap)	~0.115 TAO

  A narrow basket costs a small fraction of the reservation; only a basket at the cap pays the full ~0.115. Claim infrequently, and prefer a validator with a concentrated basket. (A Root Reborn claim only touches the validator's basket — far cheaper than a pre-Root-Reborn root claim, which settled across all subnets.)

• Switching validators — claim first. Your basket entitlement is tied to the root stake delegated to that validator. If you move or unstake without claiming, your claimable on the old basket drops toward zero (nothing is burned — re-staking the same amount restores your claim, minus the compounding you missed).

• Your return now depends on subnet performance. Root used to be flat TAO compounding on a decaying rate. Between claims you now hold subnet-alpha exposure — it can outperform or underperform. Stakers who want pure TAO exposure should claim more frequently.

Data on Taostats

Root Reborn exposes a BetaBasketRuntimeApi with views for per-staker owed TAO, per-validator NAV and basket composition, network-wide root NAV, and each validator's weight vector. These power basket performance, composition, and pending-claim metrics on Taostats.

Related

• Root Reborn — full explainer
• Root Reborn — TL;DR
• Stakeholder Emissions: Root
• Dividends for Validators
• Staking in dTao